The Lectures

Since its very beginnings, the Levisson Instituut has organised a number of public and private lectures.

From this page you can listen to and download some of these lectures as MP3-sound files. The presentations that are in writing can be read in a PDF-format Below you will also find a few classic articles that have opened the way for new thinking about the Jewish future and that cannot easily be found elsewhere. The articles

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2011.2 Rabbi prof. Reuven Firestone: 1. A public lecture with the title: "A History of Muslim-Jewish Relations, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" 2. For the Rabbinic students, the lectures/study session of the 4-day seminar in which the history and growth of Islam and of Muslim-Jewish relations in the past and the present were treated more depth. Where appropriate comparisons between the two traditions were given a closer look as were the elements therein theat have been and are of influence on these relations. 3. The texts that were studied during the seminar. Listen to the recordings and find the texts here.

2011.1 Chazzan Danny Mazeng: A workshop about chazzanoet as part of the "Professional Development"- program for our shelichay tzibbur-graduates .Listen to the recordings and find the sheet music here 2010.1 Drs Bart Wallet at the Opening of the Academic Year 2010-2011: "Citizenship and the politics of Religious Identities. The integration of the Jews in the 19th Century and the present day Dutch debate about integration."Listen to the lecture (all in Dutch)

2010.2 Dr. Rachel Reedijkat the Opening of the Academic Year 2010-2011: "Respons by the anthropologist to the lecture by the historian": as a reaction to drs. B. Wallet. Listen to or read the tekst (all in Dutch)2009.2 Rabbi prof. Marc Saperstein at the Opening van het Academic Year 2009-2010: "Spinoza's Rabbi": About his book "Exile in Amsterdam"and about Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira (1596-1660) and his famous Sermons To A Congregation of "New Jews".Read more... 2009.1 Prof Eli Schleifer's lecture about "The History of the Dutch Jewish Synagogue Music", given during the Union Oneg in The Hague on 6 June 2009. Part 1. - Part 2.

2008.1 Prof. Eli Schleifer: "Shtaygers", a lecture about the special character of Jewish music in general and in particular that of the chazzanut: nusach en shtaygers. Read more...

2007.3 Prof. Irene Zwiep at the Opening of the Academic Year 2007-2008: .. Umetalmiday yoter mikulan (BT Ta'anit 7a)Five years of the Levisson Institute."Read more...

2007.1 Rabbi prof. David B. Ruderman: "In Search of a Redeemer: The Messianic Thinking of Shabbetai Tzvi and its importance for the Jews of Today." Read more...

2006.2 Prof. Joshua Schwartz at the Opening of the Academic Year 2006-2007: "Broken beds, Broken Chairs and the Social History of the Land of Israel in the Roman Period."Read more...

2006.1 Rabbi prof. Reuven Firestone: "If there is only one God, why are there so many monotheisms?"Read more...

2005.1Prof. Menachem Lorberbaum at the Opening of the Academic Year 2005-2006: "Religion and State in Israel."Read more...

The articles

Rabbi David Hartman: Auschwitz or Sinai?Editor's Note: This powerful and oft-cited essay from 1982 remains appropriate today.It was re-published on 5 October 2009 and on 6 april 2010.Read the article...

Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenbergpublished early in the 1980s three essays that brought about much new and revolutionary thinking. He delineates in clear terms his reading of Jewish history and extrapolates from this his projections for the future of Judaism in a radically and fast changing world. Read the essays...

Rabbi Brad ArtsonAlmighty? No Way! Coming To Know The God We Already Love A Thought for Shavuot Read the reflection...